Blue
by Mangaka in Training
Summary: Another lovely winter at the Takirihongan temple, but something is not right. With the discovery of a frozen stranger, the goddesses are exposed to a person in need of help. With his faith shaken, the sisters must show him that life is still worth living.


This story is very special to me, as it hits pretty close to home. As always, it features a special original character, and of course, he's blonde. But unlike my last two main characters (whose stories I have yet to finish...) this one is of a different mindset. This story by no means has a happy beginning, and I'm wondering if it should even have a happy ending. It is a story about one boy's struggle as he is forced to become a man, and the crushing pressure that he puts himself under because of some of the less fortunate things in his actually fairly comfortable life. Ultimately he is his own worst enemy, and so he has made a choice that will affect his life drastically. This story begins as he makes this choice. I now proudly present, with somewhat morbid pleasure, Blue.

Blue

Chapter 1

Almost black

Ahhh winter. It wasn't always one of Keiichi Morisato's favorite seasons. He was short, scrawny, and as a result, often freezing whenever winter came along. But now the mere thought of winter warmed his very soul. A nice, wool sweater, made by his one true love years ago, now surrounded him, keeping his body loose and comfortable. A soft, gentle hand cupped his own, keeping the exposed appendages warmer still.

It was moments just like this one that made winter perfect now. Now that he could spend every winter with her. His goddess, Belldandy. Her beautiful sandy hair and soft, gentle blue eyes seemed to keep him warmer than even the thickest of coats ever could.

Now even though her sisters, Urd and Skuld, could be a nuisance sometimes in the past, their meddling in Kei and Bell's affairs seemed to have calmed down over the years. Perhaps it was because Skuld was maturing to the point where she didn't need her older sister's attention as much any more. Or maybe it was due to Urd's seemingly cooled passions about sparking things between the couple. Or maybe both. But now they were more like a family in a postcard than a sitcom family.

Slowly, her head rested on his shoulder, and her grip tightened gently around Kei's hand. Belldandy smiled and her eyes drifted half-shut, admiring the lovely layer of snow that had settled around their temple. She was just as content with this moment as he, just as warmed by his presence as he was with hers. Over the years she had found her strong love for this man growing stronger and stronger.

The two had everything going for them. Their life was perfect. She loved him, he loved her. They had a good home, a good education, and a good job. They had each other. From this point forward, things could only get better.

For them.

Suddenly Belldandy's hand seemed cold to Keiichi. The color drained from her face and she looked off into the distance, almost as if she was watching a ferocious, blood-bathed monster approaching them. Keiichi grew concerned after a few seconds of this, and shook her from her trance. "Belldandy? Are you..."

She stared at him blankly for a moment, then smiled as if nothing had just happened. "Oh? Is something wrong?"

Keiichi laughed nervously, and looked back out to where Belldandy had looked before. "You were looking over there and you suddenly went cold. I was going to ask if you were alright. Are you?" he said, turning back to her.

She had gone pale again.

"What is that...?" she whispered under her breath as she looked out again, her head slowly trailing to the side, as if watching a looming cloud move through the sky. Keiichi looked as hard as he could, but he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.

Suddenly the door behind them slid open. Keiichi whirled around to see Urd, Belldandy's tanned and shapely older sister, looking out at the sky with the same vacant expression on her face. "Belldandy," she spoke softly, "You can see that too, right?" Belldandy nodded slowly, her eyes never leaving the walls of the temple, staring through them.

"See what?" Keiichi asked, squinting out, hoping to spot something that he might have missed.

Skuld meekly peeked out from behind her oldest sister, a worried look as her gaze followed her sister's. "I can't believe it but... I see something too. I'm not supposed to though, am I?"

"What are you talking about?!" Keiichi finally yelled, tired of being ignored. Belldandy was the only one who turned to him.

"Keiichi, I'm sorry, I should say something. There's... something over there. Something big. Or at least very very striking."

"Yeah, and really blue..." Skuld deadpanned. She was right though, from the goddess's point of view, a large blue glow was moving slowly around the forest near the temple. It was large enough to engulf three enitre trees, and thick enough to swallow one up in its thick, dark-blue fog. But for some reason it would seem that mortal men like Keiichi couldn't see it...

"Belldandy," Urd interjected after watching the fog for a moment, "I'm going to get closer and see if it's anything we should be aware of. It may just be a few too many snow spirits having a get together, probably nothing too serious." However, before Urd could leave or Belldandy could interject, the blue shape stopped. It seemed to wobble for a moment like jello, its shape undulating and growing bigger and smaller, almost as if it were breathing.

Then, without warning, it began to collapse on itself.

It was as if a spark had lit their minds on fire. All at once Belldandy and Urd knew what was going on. They moved quickly, dashing inches above the ground, leaving Keiichi behind and Skuld rushing after them, not quite sure what was happening herself. Keiichi looked on, and after a brief moment of thought, chased the sisters into the woods.

000

Urd was the first to find the source of the blue fog, Belldandy only second behind her. The two looked upon a form lying in the snow, hunched over in a fetal position. It was a person in jeans and a plaid blue button-up shirt, no socks, shoes, or gloves keeping the rest of their body warm. Shoulder-length blonde hair layed in tangles in the mattress of snow, specs of white caught between the dirty blonde locks.

Nervously, Urd approached, hoping that her more fragile sister wouldn't have to see what might be of this sad individual. Reproachfully, she touched his arm, and her hand immediately jumped back from the intense cold of the fabric alone. Looking back at Belldandy, she saw her trembling with fear at what might have happened.

Looking back down at the person, Urd bent over their head, unable to see their face under the heavy blonde locks that blocked out their features. Urd held her hand before their mouth, and was happy to see that this person was still breathing, although it was dangerously shallow. "Belldandy! Help me out, hurry!" Urd said, hoping it wasn't too late to help this stranger.

000

Warm. It was... too warm. Was it over? Was he finally... could he be...? It didn't make sense... he thought that doing what he had done would land him in a place much, much warmer than this. But... it was comfortable... almost serene.

Yeah... this was nice, he thought. This was what he wanted.

000

The stranger turned out to be a young man, apparantly caucasian. His face was incredibly pale, and his lips were blue and cracked from the harsh weather. And as if he had wanted to be identified, the first thing in his wallet was a driver's licence. It was in English, but the goddesses were familiar with Earth languages as it was, so reading it wasn't a problem.

"Lessee here, says his name is Leon Howther. Pretty generic name huh?" Urd said, looking at his licence with a bored expression. Now that he was safe from a cold icy coffin, the excitement of saving a life had lost its edge. But when she glanced back to the poor boy, her heart chastised her for being so oblivious. He was obviously in poor condition, to say the least. And the soft blue glow that surrounded him was still there, seemingly breathing with him.

Belldandy stroked the young man's cheek, attempting to revive him. "Why would he go out in this weather with such light clothes? He doesn't even have any shoes on..." said the worried goddess. She was far more concerned with his health than the strange aura coming from him.

Keiichi was never far from her when his goddess was in distress, and he knelt down with her, holding her hand and examining the boy. "He's so young looking... is he American? He looks about twenty..."

"Seventeen actually," Skuld said, snatching his drivers license away from her older sister. "I heard that Americans age faster because of their really unhealthy diets."

"Skuld, don't be rude," Belldandy chided, not looking away from the boy, almost as if she was afraid he might slip away if she did. The goddess pulled the covers of his futon over him gently, and she pulled back a bit as he shivered in response. "He's still alive," she said aloud, possibly trying to console herself. K1 squeezed her hand, knowing how much she cared for every living being, no matter who or what.

There was a short moment of silence, broken only by a dark thought from Urd. "Did he want to be?"

All of them were silent. Belldandy hadn't even considered the possibility that this young man may have chosen to meet his fate out in the cold. The thought terrified her, that someone would want to give up one of the greatest gifts of all. Skuld had been expanding her library of manga, and she had read enough darker volumes to understand what her sister was saying. "That blue light coming from him... it's kind of like the color of a person's aura, isn't it?" Urd said, once again breaking the deathly silence.

"But that cannot be," Belldandy muttered, trying to rationalize this as an accident. "I've never seen a shade of blue so close to black before, not in an aura."

Keiichi leaned forward a little, looking closer at the boy. He still couldn't see a thing. "What's an aura?" he asked, looking up to Urd, who was floating a few feet above the blonde.

"An aura is projected by all living creatures, even goddesses," she explained. "It's how Belldandy can tell how you feel, Keiichi."

"Ah right," he remembered, "She told me about that once."

"But," Belldandy started, "I've never seen a shade like this before... it can't be his aura, it's just too sad," she said, almost coming to tears as the words left her mouth. Once again, Keiichi looked to Urd, choosing not to force Bell to continue.

"A blue aura is a sign of sadness or a melancholy state of mind. If it's light blue, a person is usually calm and isn't expressing much. But as it gets darker, that person's emotions become sadder and sadder, and can even lead to depression." The bronze goddess came down on the opposite side of the couple, observing the blue fade. "But I've never seen a color this dark before myself. It would make sense that this person was trying to ki-"

"Don't say it!" Belldandy choked out, a few tears coming free and sliding down her porcelein cheeks. "Please..."

Belldandy fell into Keiichi's arms, and he held her tightly. He had not expected the thought of suicide would disturb her so much, but it certainly made sense. After all, this was a goddess who appriciated all life, no matter how small. "Sis..." he heard Skuld whimper as she moved to embrace her beloved sibling. "It's okay, I'm sure that wasn't it. Urd's probably just making a mistake, like she usually does."

Instead of reacting to such obvious bait, Urd looked around, finding Leon's wallet on the floor. Opening it up, she looked inside. It seemed completely normal, made of brown leather, a few American dollars, and some reciepts inside, all of which had the same area code on them. "This area code is from... Texas? He's a cowboy?" Urd said, making a rash generalization. She continued to look through, sliding her finger through the pocket used to carry bills. Suddenly, her finger caught on something.

"What..." Slowly, she pulled open the inner lining of the leather, which seemed to be cut open on purpose. Underneath the flap was a folded paper, and Urd set the wallet aside, unfolding the parchment. It was a letter, written on tattered notebook paper, and some parts of the letter seemed to have been hit by drops of water. Without thinking about it, the elder sister began to read the note out loud.

"To whomever is unfortunate enough to find me. I am truly sorry you had to find me like this. I can only hope that you won't hate me for it. My name is Leon Darius Howther, and I have given up." Urd paused for a moment, swallowed, then continued. "For far too long I have lived with a pain that I can no longer bear. I hate that it has come to this, but I can no longer truly live as these thoughts hold me back. I feel like such a coward, having to resort to such a terrible solution. But ultimately I know this is for the best. I have left no instructions on how to contact my family. It is up to you whether or not you choose to find them. But please know that I would be much happier if they did not know what my fate has become. Goodbye, Tiger."

That warm feeling Keiichi had a half-hour ago was completely gone now.

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Well, no idea whether or not I'm going to finish this, I never have finished a story before, but tell me what you think.


End file.
